The flight summary for this RTW trip.
ORD-HND ANA 777-300 First Class / United Polaris Lounge - click here
HND-HKG ANA 787-9 Business Class - click here
HKG-TPE EVA Air 787-9 Business Class - this report
TPE-HKG Hong Kong Airlines A350-9 Business Class - to come
HKG-DXB Emirates A380 First Class - to come
DXB-ORD Emirates B777 First Class / Emirates DXB First Class Lounge - to come

One of the best routes to try out new aircraft is Hong to Taipei. Previously I’ve flow Cathay Pacific A350 and China Airlines A350 on this sector. This trip it’s EVA Air B787-9 and Hong Kong Airlines A350. Sure it’s only a little over an hour flight so you don’t get the full treatment, but I must say the treatment on an Asian airline for an hour flight is far different from the treatment on an hour long US domestic flight.
After contemplating and rejecting taking a trip into Hong Kong during my 7 hour layover, I spent my time in the AMEX Centurion. It’s next to the United Club lounge near Gate 60 and across the concourse from the Emirates lounge. It has a nice view of the tarmac, as most HKG lounges have. It had various types of seating but nothing that might remind you of a lounging type chair.


The food was fair, albeit not particularly plentiful. The bartender was super nice feeding me copious amounts of water.






Did I mention the view?

Following the inbound flight from TPE on Flightradar24 I knew exactly when to depart the lounge. Fortunately the shiny new EVA Air Boeing 787-9 landed just prior to darkness.
On my way to the gate I caught a glimpse of Finnair’s Oneworld livery A350. The Finnair A350 has been elusive in my quest to fly.

Perfect timing.

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Boarding from Door 2, I made my way up the right side aisle to my seat 5K. The cabin had a nice boarding color scheme for this evening’s flight to Taipei.

The Vantage XL seats are smartly trimmed with subtle grays and highlighted with EVA Air green over a mossy colored cushion.

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EVA Air only put 28 business class seats in the front cabin on this 787-9 aircraft.

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It’s the exact LOPA as Qantas employs on their 787-9 in the front cabin. (QF also has 3 rows behind door 2.) Having flown the QF 787 over the summer I commented when showing the Seatguru map: “Here is the reason row 5 window isn’t green. The window is misaligned, or actually you only get one instead of two.”

So when sitting in the seat this is your window view.


A better view. Next time I’ll take my own advice. Moral is, on a 787-9 with Vantage XL seats don’t pick row 5 window!

The view from 5K show these seats are barely offset so privacy isn’t that great on this aircraft.

Otherwise it is a beautiful cabin.

The bulkhead wall has EVA Air in white lights that wouldn’t focus on my camera no matter how many photos I took.

Standard size 787 lavs.



Vantage XL seats are great business class seats. I’m not sure about 16 hours from PER to LHR on Qantas, but for the purposes of what appears EVA Air is using these 787-9’s for, regional Asian and Australian flights of around 7-8 hours maximum, they are very well suited. Yes EVA’s 777 Cirrus seats are slightly better in my opinion, but these are pretty good too.

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What has become the normal width for entering a business class seat that hugs the window.

Footwell is wide enough for small to medium sized feet at the end for a comfortable sleep, otherwise turning larger feet sideways might be a problem.

The side-table is plenty wide and neatly holds the IFE controller power ports and seat controls including presets.

A second set of seat presets is next to your thigh when sitting, but bezeled so you can’t inadvertently touch them.

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A storage compartment with a door/mirror holds the headphones and has an additional storage cubby below. Nice design.


While the coat hook is placed in the entry area for window seats, center seats seem to have the hook closer to being in the aisle.


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Time to go.

Once airborne EVA’s excellent service began.

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I chose the Honey Glazed Chicken.

EVA swung and missed on this dish. There wasn’t much to like.

Including the dessert. Can’t win them all.

The touch IFE monitor is excellent. The problem is content. There were very few movies and if you compared it to ANA’s content, my estimate is Eva had about 10% of what ANA has.



Sans the food on this 1 hour flight, it was nice to fly EVA’s new 787-9 aircraft.

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For a sweet spot redemption and how this widebody rates against other click to rewardflying.com
Nice review. Eva's 787-9 looks like it has a fabulous business cabin.
That's too bad. It looked nice at least. What do you think was the miss?
I hope to fly this 787-9 one day.
Hi Lbfortress, thanks for reading and the nice compliment.
-Chicken was terrible, tough and chewy and the rice was dried out. Happens.
-I hope you do too!
Thanks again.
A very neat looking product indeed I think they offer on their 787, despite the quality of your meal. Let's hope it was just a small error from their side. Can't wait to try their 787 out to Bangkok from Amsterdam when they swap their 777 to a 787 on BR75/76 in June.
I just booked this exact same flight using my CA miles on this upcoming May!!! Look forward to my journey.
However, why not use SQ lounge @ HKG? Isn't that a much better choice compared to UA club and Centurion lounge?
Also, on your midnight arrival into Taipei, I booked myself novotel, is that easy to find inside the airport?
Hi StarAllianceFlier
-Last November I visited the SQ lounge in HKG and was rather embarrassed for Singapore Airlines as it was a lounge that wasn't becoming of SIA in any regard.
Also, on your midnight arrival into Taipei, I booked myself novotel, is that easy to find inside the airport?
-No you have to take the hotel shuttle. It's easy though. Once you exit into the arrivals hall go left until it ends then another left to reach the opposite side of the terminal. The busses are there. If I remember its stall #28 but don't hold me to that. The shuttle runs every 20 minutes and it's 5 minutes to the hotel.
Thanks for reading and I'm sure you will enjoy your trip on BR.
Hi ThomasDutch,
The meal would not dissuade me from taking EVA anywhere anytime given the chance.
-I'd read that these weren't going to Europe or USA. I stand corrected. Thanks for reading and looking forward to your trip report.
Hi RewardFlying, great report as usual! A very aesthetically pleasing 787 experience: Beautiful special livery and that cabin is gorgeous. The best looking Vantage XL cabin IMO. Too bad the meal was a miss, it looked visually good at least. And it is an impressive looking meal service on a 1.5 hour flight.
Thanks for sharing!